Wednesday, December 4, 2013

From prison to electoral politics?

The
upcoming election cycle may wind up showing just how sympathetic the electorate
is to the idea of someone with a criminal record being able to get back into
the game of government.

SANCHEZ: Wants back in to politics

The
process of people getting themselves on the ballot for the March 18 primary
elections ended Monday. Nominating petitions were required by the close of
business that day.

LOOKING
THROUGH THE list of people with political dreams, at least three people with
criminal records and stints in prison want to get back into politics.

Two
of them – Al Sanchez and Isaac “Ike” Carothers – want to serve on the Cook County
Board. While Kenneth Williams (not the one-time Chicago White Sox general
manager) wants to serve in the Illinois House of Representatives.

Sanchez
is the former Streets and Sanitation commissioner whose simultaneous control of
the old Hispanic Democratic Organization resulted in him committing acts (that
were supposedly done in the name of advancing Latino political empowerment)
that wound up putting him in federal prison for a stint.

Carothers
is a former alderman who lost his City Council seat when he pleaded guilty to
bribery and tax fraud charges. He, too, wound up doing prison time.

WHILE
WILLIAMS WAS the school board president with Thornton Township High School
District 205 in suburban South Holland who was removed by a Cook County judge
earlier this year because of his 28-year-old criminal conviction in Indiana for
aiding in the commission of a forgery.

Williams,
who has never done anything to hide his criminal record and has not been
convicted of any felony since then, was twice elected to the school board post.
But the judge ruled that he was never eligible to hold the post – and that the
voter support he got was irrelevant.

WILLIAMS: Booted from old post

The
appeals courts have not been sympathetic to his case thus far. Which caused
Williams, a suburban South Holland resident, to decide to run for the Illinois
House instead.

Particularly
since that legislative body has a history of members (Rep. Coy Pugh of the West
Side back in the 1990s) who had done prison time.

WILLIAMS
WILL HAVE to take on state Rep. Thaddeus Jones, D-Calumet City, a two-term
House member who has the strong support of Thornton Township Democratic Party
operatives. But he is developing a slew of supporters in his community who
think he’s being singled out for abuse because of his race (he’s
African-American).

CAROTHERS: Filling a vacancy?

Whether
that would be enough to defeat Jones is uncertain. But he’s determined not to
make the 22 months he did in prison back in his early 20s define the rest of
his life. Particularly since the breakdown that seems to have developed is that
someone with a felony record cannot serve on a school board or the City Council
(aldermen specifically approved that change a few years ago), but can serve in
state, county or local government.

As
for Sanchez and Carothers, both of them are hoping to take advantage of special
circumstances on the Cook County Board.

Carothers
is going for a county board seat that was held by Earlean Collins, who has
decided to retire from politics. She’s not seeking re-election.

WHICH
MEANS AN open seat. No one has the benefit of incumbency. It may well be that
Carothers will have enough name recognition amongst his old ward constituents to
win – particularly since he’s one of six people running for the post.

He
won’t exactly have to win a majority to win the election. A 30 percent support
level could be more than enough for him to get a political comeback.

As
for Sanchez, the seat he’s going for currently is filled by Stanley Moore, who
was appointed to fill the vacancy created when William Beavers was found guilty
of the tax-related charges that sent him off to prison for a six-month sentence
beginning Monday.

Sanchez
hopes that Moore, who has less than a year in office thus far and keeps a low
profile amongst the county board members, is beatable. As though he hasn’t been
around long enough to gain the benefits of incumbency!

HE
MAY EVEN try to claim that he’s benefitting the cause of Latino empowerment by
adding to the number of Latinos now on (Jesus Garcia and Edwin Reyes) the Cook
County Board.

Whether
anyone buys that argument is questionable.

Although
the idea that Sanchez wants back in to the game of electoral politics is so
predictable. Political retirement, particularly when it is imposed on someone,
is deadly dull.

I am a Chicago-area freelance writer who has reported on various political and legal beats. I wrote "Hispanic" issues columns for United Press International, observed up close the Statehouse Scene in Springfield, Ill., the Cook County Board in Chicago and municipal government in places like Calumet City, Ill., and Gary, Ind. For a time, I also wrote about agriculture. Trust me when I say the symbolic stench of partisan politics (particularly when directed against people due to their ethnicity) is far nastier than any odor that could come from a farm animal.